Review: Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

In Asian culture, boys are superior, and girls are worthless, they are only good to marry off. As in the case of this book. Set in the 19th century, women don't have a voice, they don't have choices, and their culture is so much of a hard endurance. The woman go through a ritual of foot binding. This custom of applying tight binding to the feet of young girls to modify the shape of their feet. Foot binding displayed the status of women from wealthy families, who did not need their feet to work, and was a symbol of beauty in Chinese culture. Foot binding limited the mobility of women, resulting in them walking in a swaying unsteady gait.

This was how Lily, a young girl who was matched to a good, high standing family, and Snow Flower, Lily's laotong, a companion, a sister in a secret sisterhood. Their friendship blossoms into a beautiful friendship that last through the age of time. Although after Lily gets married, she finds out the truth about Snow Flower, her family was once a very powerful family, and then they lost it all, the match maker is actual Snow Flower's aunt, and because she was Lily's laotong, she was married off to a butcher, which is classified as the lowest standard in the Chinese culture. Lily's new mother-in-law tells Lily she must not talk or see Snow Flower ever again, but Lily finds a way to stay in touch with Snow Flower. The two have been through so much together, Lily will never stop talking or seeing Snow Flower.

This book brought back memories of my childhood friends, and the tight closeness, sister like we all shared as we were growing up, moving on, being their for one and other in the good times and bad. I found their is a Lily and Snow flower in all of us.

One thing I am so grateful for is, I'm happy I was born in my country and in this time period. I'm able to think at my own free will, I'm in individual, and I can make my own choices. Lily and Snow Flower could do none of it. I was getting a little angry every time they kept saying that girls/daughters/women/wives where worthless, I did have to take a step back and remember this was the way of the culture in that time in their country.

I like how Lily, as she's the narrator of the book, speaks with love and fondness of her friend and you could actually feel the love these women shared with each other. How no matter how high Lily's status was she never lost sight Snow Flower was and would always be her "sister", her friend. She didn't let anyone stand in her way or come between them. They shared so much laughter, love, sorrow, between each other, they were each other's biggest cheerleader, and had the biggest shoulder to cry on.

Although this story was a bit sad, there was something about it which made me feel happy for both of the characters, which made this such a beautiful story that needed to be told. I learned so much about the culture of this country and the time period. At first the story seemed to be moving at a slow pace, but then I realized it was the way the narrator was telling it because in that time, they didn't move fast, and it was as if I was sitting right there in front of Lily as she told me her story.

This is a beautifully written book.

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